The usage of lean tools in healthcare environment

Abstract

This study aims to cover aspects that were not addressed in previous reviews and update them. A review was conducted on 48 articles published in journals indexed by Web of Science and/or Scopus. The results were compared with those presented in previous reviews on the same subject: lean healthcare. This study identified the state of the art of lean healthcare, considering aspects such as lean tools, healthcare areas, and other factors. Understanding the current knowledge about barriers and tools for implementing lean healthcare should be valuable for healthcare managers. Furthermore, we emphasize that previous studies did not address the mapping of barriers to lean healthcare adoption.